This Sort of Thing Happens in Sitcoms, Not in Real Life
by Hypnotoad76
Summary: Late one night Annie breaks into Jeff's apartment, only to accidently see him walking around naked
1. Chapter 1

"Here is everyone's list," Abed said as he passed a piece of paper to everyone. "Look through it and then crumple it up and eat it."

"This isn't mission impossible. I doubt it's a threat to anyone's security," Britta said.

"But maybe it is," Troy said dramatically.

Annie carefully looked over her list, mentally working out how to best find each item. She was excited with what they were doing. That afternoon Troy and Abed had proposed that the group should do a scavenger hunt together. While Pierce and Jeff had passed the rest of them had jumped at the suggestion. The five of them were now at Anntrobed getting their lists before they set off.

Shirley giggled gleefully as she looked over her list. "I'm so excited. I've never done a scavenger hunt before."

"This isn't a proper one though," Britta scornfully said. "Why are we taking pictures of things instead of taking the actual items?"

"This way no one has to carry a bunch of stuff back," Abed said. "Plus now we don't have to worry about getting into trouble for stealing things."

Shirley nodded her head vigorously while Britta quietly responded with "But that's half the fun."

"Since there's an uneven amount of people playing we're not going to have teams. Everyone will be a team of one. You have two hours to try and find all of the stuff on your lists, and then we'll meet back here and look through the photos to see who found the most items," Abed said.

"Two Hours!" Shirley loudly exclaimed. "It's already going on 11 Abed. I know its Saturday, but some of us have to go to sleep and get up for church tomorrow."

"Well if you don't want to play," Abed said as he started taking Shirley's paper from her.

"Don't even think about it," Shirley said as she tightly held onto her paper. "I'm not being left out while you guys have a fun adventure. I'll just be a little drowsy in church tomorrow. That's still better than some people who never find religious fulfillment."

"Can you not drag me into this?" Britta pointedly said to Shirley.

"You guys," Annie desperately said. "Can we not fight? We're here to have fun."

"Sorry," Britta said.

"Sorry Annie," Shirley said.

"Ok, so everyone is okay with the rules?" Abed said. "Then let's go."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie smiled as she looked over her list. She had already taken pictures of over half her items and it wasn't even past the first hour. An almost feverish thrill flowed through her as she thought about how well she was doing. She just needed pictures of seven more items and she would have everything. She was so going to win this.

She scanned the list for the remaining items, wondering where she was going to find a pre twentieth century bicycle. Deciding to skip that one for now she looked through the other items she hadn't found yet. She frowned at the third to last one on the list: _a gold Rolex that's not in a store front window_. Where was she going to find that at twelve at night?

Suddenly a slow smile spread across her face as she thought about where she could find a gold Rolex. Jeff. That was exactly the kind of thing he would have. True, she couldn't recall ever seeing him wear one. But that wasn't something he'd wear to Greendale, she rationed. That was something you wore in court or to impress clients at functions.

She thought about calling him and asking if she could pop in quickly to take a picture of the watch. But he probably wasn't home. It was Saturday night, which meant he was most likely at a bar picking up some random woman. And if he wasn't home then she couldn't get the watch picture. It wasn't like she could just go to his apartment when he wasn't there.

But maybe I can, she slowly rationalized. She figured that he probably had a spare key hidden outside his door for emergencies. She could slip in, take the picture, and get out before he even realized she was there.

Carefully folding up her list and putting it in her pocket, Annie set off for Jeff's to get one step further in winning the game.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie's nerves were 100% on edge as she slipped into Jeff's darkened apartment. It had seemed like such a good plan when she first had it. But now that she was in here it didn't seem like such a good idea anymore. What if he came home with a woman? Or what if he was already home in bed with a woman.

Stopping dead in her tracks at that thought she strained her ears to listen for any moaning or bed spring squeaks, prepared to flee if she heard anything. But all she heard was silence. Wherever Jeff was it wasn't here.

Annie took a deep breath as she set off on her task, wanting to find the watch and take a picture before Jeff eventually came home. She thought about turning on a light, but felt it might draw too much attention to herself. Instead she took out her phone and flipped it open, using the light from the screen to guide her way. She went into the living room and started shifting through drawers, pulling things out before carefully putting them back in the exact order she found them in.

She was so focused on her search that she didn't hear the sound of bare feet walking through the kitchen. It wasn't until light shined through the kitchen from the refrigerator door that Annie realized she wasn't alone. She spun around, screaking in terror.

"AWW!"

"WHAT THE HELL!"

Her eyes grew wide as she saw a completely naked Jeff standing in front of the open refrigerator. She tried to say something but she was speechless at the sight of him in all his glory. Her eyes traveled down his chest and abs until they focused on his penis. The more she tried not to look at it the more she kept focusing on it.

She was finally snapped out of it when Jeff switched the kitchen lights on and saw who was in his apartment. "Annie! What are you doing here?"

Annie tried to say something to justify why she was in Jeff's apartment at night while he was walking around naked, but she wouldn't come up with anything. Her normally work a mile a minute brain had completely stalled in this situation. After a few moments (which felt like decades to her) she bolted out of the apartment, almost tripping over her feet as she ran down the hallway and out the front door.

She was out the building and halfway down the block when she suddenly came to a stop, furious at herself for how she acted. Rather than try and explain herself she had run away like a kid caught doing something wrong. Now this would further reinforce Jeff's belief that she was nothing more than a kid. A child who freaked out at seeing a guy naked.

It wasn't that big of a deal, she thought. After all, she had already seen Jeff naked before (although that time she didn't get the complete unobstructed eyeful she got tonight.) And they were adults. This was something they should just be able to talk through and then laugh about.

But even if that was the case, there was NO way she could face Jeff tonight to try and smooth things over. Not after running out of there without a word. And even if she hadn't seen him naked, he would probably be mad that she had broken into his apartment (which he actually had every right to be.)

No, the best thing to do was to give both of them some space and deal with it on Monday.


	2. Chapter 2

Annie groaned in frustration as she opened her eyes. She had woken up three times that night, and each time it was from a sex dream between her and Jeff. In her latest one she was at his apartment and he walked into the kitchen naked, only in the dream he was cocky and seductive instead of shocked. She instantly went from wearing her normal clothes to being in a sexy lingerie set complete with stockings and a garter belt. Things quickly progressed from them furiously making out to Jeff ripping her underwear off to…hard R/NC-17 content.

The thing was, Annie didn't want to have these dreams. Not if they resulted from what had happened during the scavenger hunt. She didn't find what happen particularly titillating. She found it embarrassing, and she was betting that Jeff felt the same way. And putting the nudity aspect aside, there was still the fact that Jeff had caught her breaking into his apartment. The whole thing was a disaster, and she didn't want to lose focus on the damage control she would have to do to fix things. And yet her subconscious seemed to be trying to make it into a lurid Jeff fantasy.

She glanced out at the sunlight through the shades, thankful that it was morning and she didn't have to worry about falling back to sleep, when her cell phone alarm went off. She frowned in confusion before she suddenly remembered why it was going off at 9:15 on a Sunday. She was having brunch with the group at 10.

Annie groaned as she remembered that, having completely forgotten that she supposed to see everyone, including Jeff, in less than an hour. She was hoping she could hide out until Monday and plan out how to best handle this. She wasn't in the mood to face Jeff today, and risk everyone else finding out what happened. It was going to be hard enough avoiding Abed and Troy's questions. She needed a day before she was ready to take on everyone else.

But she couldn't exactly not go. After all, this whole thing had been her idea in the first place (she had said in September they should have brunch together every Sunday so it became a tradition that extended past their time in Greendale). And since almost everyone in the group had seen her as late as last night, she couldn't pretend to be sick or out of town. The only choice she had was to go, try and speak with Jeff quietly, and hope no one noticed anything.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

When she walked into the diner she saw Jeff sitting at their usual table, his face engrossed in his phone. Not sure if she should be relieved or nervous that they were the first ones there she strolled over and took her usual seat. "Hi Jeff."

He didn't look up or acknowledge her as he kept his eyes down on the screen. Just as Annie was about to say something she heard him say "So are you going to run away this time?"

"Jeff…" Annie said, looking in Jeff's general direction while avoiding making direct eye contact.

"Annie," he said as he finally looked up from his phone. "You broke into my apartment last night. I know this because I clearly remembering locking up before I went to sleep. That's not exactly something I can just brush aside. Plus you saw me naked…"

"I know, and I'm sorry. We were playing a scavenger hunt and I was looking for something I thought you might have. I wasn't thinking straight. And I didn't think you'd be home."

"First off, it doesn't matter if I was home or not. You still broke in. And second, why would you just assume I wouldn't be home?"

"I don't know." She rolled her eyes as she gave him an almost Britta like 'du' look. "It was Saturday night. I figured you would have been out at a bar picking someone woman."

"Yea, that hasn't happened for a while now."

Jeff suddenly grew silent, realizing exactly what he had revealed. The two of them looked at each other in surprise when Pierce chose that moment to arrive.

"Good morning people." He obliviously sat down before noticing the stunned looks on their faces. "What happened? Did Winger finally come out of the closet? Don't tell me I missed it?"

"Pierce!" Annie said.

"What, we all know it's going to happen."

Just then Britta walked in with Troy and Abed, and about a minute later all of them had finally arrived and were seated at the table. Jeff and Annie made a point to keep their heads in their menus as everyone else talked.

"I'm so happy I played last night," Shirley happily said. "Even though I didn't win and almost nodded off during today's sermon I had fun."

"Who won?" Pierce asked.

"Me and Britta tied with eighteen items found," Abed said. "Shirley found sixteen items, Troy found fifteen, and Annie found thirteen." He was silent for a moment before looking in Annie's direction. "I was sure you would have won since you're competitive and hate to lose."

"Well, it's just a game," she said an octave higher than normal.

"Are you ok Annie?" Troy asked. "You've been off ever since we compared our pictures last night."

"I'm fine everyone," she said in a voice that clearly didn't sound fine.

"Just leave her alone," Jeff said. "Do we always have to be in everyone's business?"

They barely got through the next few moments before Britta said "Ok, what's up with you two. You've both on edge and aren't looking at each other. Which as a psych major I can tell you-."

"That an overzealous psych major never knows when to let something go." Jeff said, causing Britta to scowl and burn holes through her menu as she looked through the morning cocktail selection.

"Ok you two, what's going on?" Shirley said. "You're acting like my boys when they have something going on between them. Did you two get into a fight?"

"We didn't do anything," Jeff said with barely contained annoyance.

They kept their heads down in their menus as they felt everyone look at them, when out of the blue Abed said "One of them saw the other one naked."

"WHAT!" Shirley, Britta, and Troy said at the same time.

"Abed!" Annie shrieked. "That's not…" She set her menu down as she groaned in defeat. "How did you possibly know that's what happened?"

"It's a fairly standard sitcom staple. And usually when they happens both people are on edge and avoid looking at each other."

"Jeffrey!" Shirley said in her disapproving mother voice. "You violated that girl's innocence by seeing her naked?"

"Hey, I was the violated one here. She broke into my apartment and saw me naked."

"Oh. OH!" Shirley said.

"So what happened, you wanted to try making a move on Jeff or something?" Troy asked.

"You guys," Annie said pleadingly. "I wasn't trying to make a move. I thought Jeff might have a Rolex for the scavenger hunt and I snuck in to try and find it. He happened to walk into the kitchen without any clothes on and I saw him naked. That's all that happened."

"Sure, he just 'happened' to walk by," Pierce said.

"Pierce, I was thirsty and wanted some water. And it was warm so I wasn't wearing…wait, why am I explaining myself? I didn't do anything wrong here," Jeff said.

"Can we just drop it everyone," Annie asked. "I'm sure this will just blow over by tomorrow." She waited a moment before looking at Abed worryingly. "Right Abed? That's usually what happens?"

"Well on Friends when Chandler saw Rachel naked she tried to see him naked so they would be even. She ended up seeing Joey naked instead, who then ended up seeing Monica naked when he tried to see Rachel. So by sitcom logic Jeff would try to see you naked but would instead see Shirley, Shirley would try and see Jeff but see Troy, and then Troy would somehow end up seeing one of our parent's naked, who would either freak out the most out of everyone or would be completely unbothered by it."

"Well," Shirley said. "I think I speak for all of us when I say; Jeff, Annie, you need to work this out before you even think of setting off that round robin of craziness. Because if anyone tries to see me naked it'll be the last thing you ever see."

"Least it would be a nice last sight," Pierce said, who then looked terrified at the extremely stern look Shirley shot at him. "Ok, ok, stop looking at me like that."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie sat in her bed as she tried to study her journalism textbook, but even learning wasn't helping her situation. She and Jeff had barely even looked at each other during the rest of the brunch. And afterwards neither made any plans to try and talk about this. Things between them were tentative enough as it was. The last thing they needed was one more thing keeping them apart.

She looked up as she heard someone knock on her door. "Come in."

"Hey Annie," Abed said as he closed the door and sat down on her bed. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure."

Abed looked at her for a few moments before he started speaking. "Annie, this actually happened to Jeff and Britta our first season together."

"Abed, I already know that they slept together during paintball."

"That's not what I was talking about. Just before Valentine's Day that year Britta drunk dialed Jeff. And when she realized what she did she got embarrassed and couldn't be around Jeff. In order to fix things Jeff had to get drunk and drunk dial Britta, so they were even and balance was restored between them. That's what you two need. You need to restore balance between you."

"And how do I-." Her eyes widened in shock as she realized what Abed was saying. "Wait, are you saying I should let Jeff see me naked because I saw him?"

"It would make you two even. And it would allow you to work through any other issues that might have come up based on what happen."

"Abed, I am _not_ going to just strip down and let Jeff see me naked."

Abed looked at her before rising from her bed. "I just know that a balance has to be restored before you two can move on from this. And in sitcoms that's usually the person who saw the other naked being seen naked themselves." With that he stepped out of her room, leaving Annie to ponder what she was just told.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie clutched her trench coat(it was actually Abed's, but after all the time he and Troy borrowed her stuffed animals for their movies he had been due to let her borrow something from him) tightly around her neck as she stood outside of Jeff's apartment. She had to be crazy to have thought this idea was even remotely good. A part of her wanted to walk right back to her car and go home. But she was already here, and if she left now she would never work up her nerves to do this a second time.

She took a deep breath before knocking loudly on Jeff's door. She waited several moments before knocking again. When she again didn't hear anything she tried calling Jeff, only for his phone to go to voicemail. So not only was he probably out, but he chose tonight as the first time he turned off his phone, she thought.

Not wanting to stand out in the hallway in literally just a trench coat Annie retrieved the spare key and unlocked the door, even though the voice in her head kept screaming that Jeff would be furious that she was going into his apartment again. Once inside she checked every single room before deducting that she was indeed alone this time.

Annie sat on the couch, trying to decide what to do. First she took off the coat and lay down on the couch so Jeff would immediately see her as soon as he walked in. But then she quickly put it back on incase he didn't come back by himself. She then toyed with if she should have it open or closed, finally deciding to keep it tightly closed until the moment she was ready to take it off. After that decision was made, all that remained was waiting until Jeff arrived home so she could make them even.

As the minutes dragged by Annie felt her eyes lids grow heavy. After staying up late last night (and not getting any real restful sleep), she was tired and drowsy. She laid down on the couch, with the intention of just resting her eyes until Jeff came back.

Instead she found herself falling soundly asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Annie groaned as she felt her body, specifically her shoulder, shake. She was so warm and comfy. All she wanted to do was sleep.

"Annie, get up." she hears someone say.

Just five more minutes, she drowsily thought.

"Annie! Get Up!" she heard again more forcefully.

Annie suddenly opened her eyes as she remembered where she was. She looked up to see Jeff standing over her, looking none too pleased to see her. "Jeff."

"What are you doing here?"

"I…I…" She tried to explain why she had again let herself into his apartment, but it suddenly seemed like such a stupid reason.

"Well!"

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to try and fix things after what happened. Abed said I had to restore balance between us so I came over to do that but then you weren't home and I didn't want to stand out in the hallway so I can in and I was tired so I closed my eyes for a moment and then-."

"Annie!" She abruptly stopped talking as the anger on Jeff's face seemed to reluctantly subside. "You're babbling. Take a breath and tell me why you came over here."

Annie took a moment to breathe deeply and compose herself before continuing. "I came here so you could see me naked."

"Wait, what?" Jeff said in confusion.

"Jeff, we couldn't even look at each other at brunch because of what happened. And according to Abed, the only way we can move on is if you see me naked too. So I came here to make us even."

Jeff eyes ran down the loosened collar of her coat, seeing that more skin was exposed then there ought to be. "Wait, did you come all the way over here in nothing but a trench coat?"

"Yea. I didn't think that one through, but I figured if I jumped right in I'd do it before I became too terrified." Her hands shook slightly as they started unknotting the belt. "So let's do this so we can-."

Jeff quickly grabbed her hands and pulled them away before she could open her coat. "Annie, stop. You don't have to do this."

"Jeff, we have to be even so we can move past this."

"Annie, I don't want to see you naked."

She paused as she looked up at Jeff, not sure if she should feel relieved or insulted. "What?"

"Annie, I don't want you doing this just to prove something, or because Abed said I should see you naked to make us even. If I'm going to see you naked it should be…" He paused in his speech, again realizing he probably said too much. "Just, keep your coat on."

She looked at him curiously before she sat down, ignoring certain things he said while focusing on others. "So…you don't want to see me naked."

"Not like this. Not when it's just because you feel guilty because you saw me naked." He sat down next to her, trying to focus on anything but the strip of exposed skin that ran from her neck to her cleavage. "Look, I'm not mad or embarrassed that you saw me naked. I mean, it's not like it was the first time that happened. Or did you forget my ridiculous pool game strip down?"

"It's kind of hard to forget," Annie said, with only a hint of embarrassment at the memory.

Jeff smirked at her, feeling a bit of pride in spite of himself. "The point is, I'm not embarrassed by what you saw last night. I feel a bit bad for you though. You did run out of here pretty quick."

"Well…ok, yes, I was embarrassed. But…I wasn't as embarrassed as I would have been a few years ago. It was both seeing you naked and being caught in your apartment that made me run.

Jeff's face grew more serious as she brought her break in up. "Annie, I want to make it clear that I wasn't mad that you saw me naked. What got to me was you breaking into my apartment in the middle of the night. I know we're friends, but there still has to be a sense of boundaries between us. How would you have felt if you woke up and I was in your place like that?"

Annie shuttered as she really thought about how she would have felt if their roles had been reversed that night. After two years of living in fear of thieves and degenerates breaking into her place in the middle of the night (and that fear still prevalent even after she moved in with Abed and Troy), she knew it would have gotten to her if she woke up and someone was unexpectedly in her home, even if it was a friend.

"Your right, I would have felt uncomfortable if someone had broken in, even if it was you. I know what I did was wrong. I just wasn't thinking. All I could think about was winning that scavenger hunt." She frowned deeply as she hung her head. "I guess I really haven't changed, haven't I."

"What are you talking about?"

Annie picked her head back up as her eyes met Jeff's. "Jeff, I want to be someone who thinks about others, and doesn't just focus on myself and my own ambition. But no matter how hard I try I keep falling back to where I only think about myself."

"Annie," Jeff said as he absentmindedly stroked her cheek. "You're one of the most selfless people I know."

"What about when I almost had everyone fail Spanish just so we'd stay in the same class together? That was pretty selfish."

"Yea, it was. But that was years ago. And we've all done stupid things we're later not proud of. I mean, I prolonged a school wide pillow fight and endangered Troy and Abed's friendship just to get out of class."

"I wouldn't call that your best moment. But you got them to work it out in the end. That counts for a lot Jeff."

Jeff kept his face blank as he reflected on what she said. For a moment he considered telling her that it was her words that caused him to realize what he was doing to the boys was wrong. Or that she had inspired him to start writing (admittedly very infrequent) in a journal. But he decided to keep it to himself, feeling uncomfortable at revealing just how much he took her opinion of him to heart. Instead he just decided to say a generalization on his feelings. "I guess. Maybe it just takes a while to figure out who we are."

Annie grew apprehensive as she took in Jeff's words, since they reflected thoughts she had had for a while now. In the last month she had been thinking a great deal about where her life was going, and the direction she wanted it to go in. After giving it a lot of thought, and sampling a different direction from what she had done since starting college, she felt she was ready to make a major change in her life. But she knew it would be better to discuss this decision with someone, and it seemed like Jeff was the person to discuss it with.

But just as she was about to begin telling him, he said to her "Though I think some people send too much time analyzing themselves. Then they never get anywhere in life. Just pick a path and commit. You are what you are and that's all."

He snickered at what he thought was a clever realization, but failed to notice the look of hurt that formed on Annie's face. Though he didn't mean it, he had inadvertently offended her for doubting where her life was heading and wanting to make a change. But, that's what Jeff did. Hurt others by only focusing on himself.

"I should go," she said as she stood up.

"Is everything ok Annie?"

Oh, now you notice something's wrong, she thought. "I'm fine. I just don't want to keep sitting here in just a trench coat. And I should get ready for bed so I'm not sleeping in class tomorrow."

"Ok," Jeff said slowly. He guessed that there was more to her abruptly leaving then she was letting on. But he decided not to say anything. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good night Jeff. Your spare key is over there on the counter." With that she purposely walked out of the apartment and out of the building.

Once she got in her car she put both hands on the steering wheel, taking deep breaths. She knew Jeff had changed a lot in the past three years. And that most of those changes had been for the better. But sometimes she thought that they had been closer when they were first getting to know each other (specifically before the tranny dance kiss) then they were now. They hardly ever really talked anymore. And when she did try to talk to him he did or said something that showed he just didn't get it. It made it hard to confide in him when she didn't feel he could put her before himself.

She had honestly really wanted to run this life altering decision by someone else, since it could affect the rest of her life. And she really wanted Jeff to be the one that she confided in and obtained advice from. But when she needed him the most he just proved he wasn't someone she could talk to. And instead she now had to make this decision by herself.

But, she thought, maybe this is something I have to make by myself. That's what an adult does. They make decisions on their own, without the approval of others. Maybe that's the mark of growing up. To think for yourself without letting the opinion of others affect you. So in a way maybe Jeff really did help her, since he inadvertently taught her this life lesson.

Just then she smiled, as without warning she had the answer to her question. She knew what she wanted to do with her life. If she was honest she had known it was something she wanted to do for a while. She had just been too afraid to pursue it.

As she started her car to head home she knew she would eventually have to thank Jeff. After all, he had led to her making this decision. In more ways than he himself knew.

**The End **

_This story line will continue in the sequel 'An Unavoidable Collision of Two Forces'. _


End file.
